


Chemistry: The Physical Setting

by driedflowers



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Chemistry, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-23
Updated: 2015-09-23
Packaged: 2018-04-22 23:26:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4854626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/driedflowers/pseuds/driedflowers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Annie tries to make a TV reference, and things don't go exactly as planned. But that turns out to be okay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chemistry: The Physical Setting

“Nice shirt,” Annie says. It’s actually a pretty regular shirt, a cozy green sweater, but that’s not the point.

Troy preens slightly. “Thanks!”

“I bet it would look even nicer on my floor,” she says, going for that look Abed sometimes wears when he makes a bad pun. Like he’s really proud of the joke and really sorry for it at the same time. Annie’s so focused on replicating this expression that it takes her a moment to notice Troy looking at her weirdly, and then it clicks. “Wait, shit. _Abed’s_ floor. I meant _Abed’s_ floor. Have you guys seen Parks and Rec?”

“Was that a Freudian slip?” Abed asks. He raises an eyebrow.

Those pseudo-therapy sessions with Britta are accomplishing _something_ , then.

“No! Of course not.”

Troy puts a hand on her shoulder and looks her in the eye. It’s intense, and her high school self definitely would have melted by now. Maybe even skipped the liquid phase altogether—sublimation, straight from solid to gas like dry ice.

Chemistry is so much simpler in the lab.

“Annie, are you jealous of us?” Troy asks, bringing her back to the situation at hand.

“I was going to do a pop culture reference, and it was going to make sense, and we were all going to laugh.” Tears prickle behind her eyes, and Troy pulls her in for a hug. “Just like old times! I always felt like such a third wheel with you guys, and now that you’ve started dating...”

Here’s where the liquid phase comes in. She’s crying in earnest now, into Troy’s shoulder.

“You’re not a third wheel,” Abed says, joining the hug. “We’re Troy and Abed and Annie. Now available not just mornings, but all day long!” he adds, talking like he’s selling a Snuggie on paid programming at 2 AM.

"Aww, Abed," she coos, tears shining on the apples of her cheeks as she beams up at him.

"You know, Annie, you could be in on the romance stuff too."

She's glad Troy didn't say sex. There's definitely sex going on, and she's definitely interested in that side of things, but definitely still not mature enough to keep a straight face about it.

“It would be a great ending to our coming-of-age story. If you want to.”

"Really?"

"Yeah," Abed says. They dissolve the hug, presumably to give Annie some space to think.

Maybe her whole life leading up to this has been the second just before you light the match, when the gas is whooshing from the spigot, through the tube and up into the bunsen burner, invisible. Or maybe it’s not so dramatic, and chemistry is the wrong metaphor, and changing her life like this won’t be like igniting a flame, but settling into something she’s always known.

It sounds nice, it really does. She imagines that dating Troy and Abed would be more like living in a blanket fort full-time: comfortable, familiar, warm. But the thing is, Annie Edison is done getting her heart broken. She has to be sure about this one. It can't be like whatever has been going on with Jeff, all uncertain and angsty and charged. It has to be something real. She deserves better. And this seems like it.

"I’m in," she says, and when they recommence the hug, the last echoes of her tears dissipate.

This isn't living in the moment; she swore never to do that again. This is doing what has felt right for years, this is finally coming home.

 

**Author's Note:**

> The chem class I took last year was called Chemistry: The Physical Setting. Hence the title. I considered calling it just The Physical Setting, but there's also Earth Science: The Physical Setting. I wanted to make clear from the start exactly which bad science metaphor I would be overusing.


End file.
